Day 48

Recently, ex-Celtic and current Cavalier Delonte West took a leave of absence from the team to deal with the depression and mood disorders that he's been battling his entire life. He's been very candid and open about the situation and in an arena where any sign of "weakness" is usually avoided, it's been interesting to see the response.

"I felt a feeling of anger, and I just wanted to throw it all away and quit the team," he said.

The 25-year-old candidly discussed his condition following practice on Friday. West said he had been troubled by his behavior toward a high-school referee during a scrimmage at the Cavs' training facility on Oct. 3. West said the incident was a warning signal for him to seek treatment to combat an illness that has troubled him for years.

West is on medication and is attending therapy sessions.

"In a sense, you feel like a weaker man because you have to raise your hand and ask for help," West said. "But I found out over the last week that it made me a stronger person. I came back focused, and with the help of some medicine and talking with people on a regular basis, I'm back in good spirits.

The response has mostly been no response. At least nothing negative. If anything many people have applauded Delonte for the way he handled the situation. It's silly to think that just because someone might have superhuman athletic skills and be living the dream that they wouldn't be depressed. That's how some fans think about professional athletes I'm sure. "What the hell do they have to be depressed about?"

That's kind of the question recently. I've been in a series of brief talks with a friend exploring depression and how it affects our lives. When I asked him if he was depressed, he said something akin to "It feels like every day is depressing." I think I paraphrased it totally wrong but that's what I took out of it.

My answer was that I didn't even know what depression was really. It's kind of a foreign concept to me. I mean, the signs and symptoms of depression include feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, loss of interest in daily activities, inability to sleep (or sleeping too much), inability to control your negative thoughts, self-loathing, problems concentrating on things, and thoughts about how life isn't worth living.

Everyone experiences moments like this right? Well the difference between clinical depression versus situational depression is apparently length and severity.

That helps to define it I guess. What I lack though is more clarity on exactly what it feels like. For all I know I'm depressed whenever I'm sitting around on my ass doing nothing. But then I feel like what exactly is there to be depressed about? I'm living the life. And that's pretty much very true.

Along these same lines, my friend and I talked about the idea of therapy -- in theory and execution. Both of us are totally inexperienced with it and possibly somewhat skeptical about it's efficacy, but it seems like talking to an unbiased individual who will shut up and let you do the talking could be very useful. Another pair of friends recently started doing friend therapy together (I'm assuming with little interruption or back and forth) and I'm curious if that's a good substitute.

Anyway, we came to the confounding conclusion/question of what we would say during our first therapy session. When they ask "So what are you here for?" What would we say?